Software Surveillance of Software Surveillance of Software Surveillance of Software Surveillance of Farms, Farmers and FoodFarms, Farmers and FoodFarms, Farmers and FoodFarms, Farmers and Food

Association of American Geographers Annual Meeting, Las Vegas, 26th March 2009

Rob Kitchin

National University of Ireland, Maynooth

Martin Dodge

University of Manchester

The Cornfield, John Constable, 1826

Rural idyll / agroRural idyll / agroRural idyll / agroRural idyll / agro----industrial industrial industrial industrial landscapelandscapelandscapelandscape

• Social construction of the ‘rural’ in

popular imagination of Englishness

• Appears as the opposite of urban and

modern

• Natural, peaceful & quiet, freedom

• Yet, little or nothing of ‘nature’ in

the English countryside

• Materiality results from political

economy – fields, land-ownership,

animals present/not present, etc

• Range of distinct social problems and

dangers. A fearful place, perhaps, if

you are ‘out of place’

• Highly surveilled and governed

Hybrid countryside(s)Hybrid countryside(s)Hybrid countryside(s)Hybrid countryside(s)• Murdoch (2003: 274) “The countryside is hybrid… it is defined by

networks in which heterogeneous entities are aligned in a variety

of ways”

• Woods (2007: 495), “it is made (and constantly remade) through

the entanglement and interaction of the social and the natural,

the human and the non-human, the rural and the non-rural, and

the local and the global.”

• The question for us is in what ways are sensors/id tags,

surveillance databases and software simulations becoming

entangled in this production of hybrid countryside(s)

• What difference does code make in the countryside, particularly in

automated surveilling of farming practices and rural landscapes

• Rural spaces are interesting, in part, because they are under

studied in terms of pervasive computing and software surveillance

• Matthew Fuller and Lev Manovich defining ‘software studies’

• “Software Studies uses and develops cultural and theoretical

approaches to make critical and speculative accounts of the

objects and processes of computer science.”

• http://lab.softwarestudies.com/2008/07/software-studies-book-

series-mit-press.html

• Nigel Thrift’s ‘automatic production of space’ and ‘technological

unconscious’

• Steve Graham’s ‘software sorting’

• Pete Adey: ‘software-simulated space’ and ‘anticipatory

governance’

• “software simulations make the future present and actionable-

upon by alerting the users to future possibilities” (25)

• Stuart Lane’s ‘surveillant science’

• Our notions of ‘code/space’, ‘coded space’

Approaching code Approaching code Approaching code Approaching code ----Some analytical conceptsSome analytical conceptsSome analytical conceptsSome analytical concepts

Making food more knowableMaking food more knowableMaking food more knowableMaking food more knowable

• regulating safety in the food supply chain by coding livestock (and subsequently parts of livestock) so they are traceable from ‘farm-to-fork’

• enhancing automation of farm labour by taking ‘precision farming’ to the animal. Stockperson become screen-worker

Abstracting and tracking cattle Abstracting and tracking cattle Abstracting and tracking cattle Abstracting and tracking cattle ‘externallyexternallyexternallyexternally’

• Safety with life cycle traceability

• Made machine-readable

• Cattle tracking service

– check which animals are present on

a holding

– check where an animal has been

during its life

– trace animals exposed to a disease

risk

– give assurances to buyers about an

animal’s life history, and so

– strengthen consumer confidence in

beef

Ethical eating Ethical eating Ethical eating Ethical eating – ‘google your google your google your google your grubgrubgrubgrub’ as consumer empowerment as consumer empowerment as consumer empowerment as consumer empowerment

• Automatic milking systems

• Huge capital investment

• Code changes practices for

cows (on-demand, recognised

individually) and stockperson

• Controversial as it appears so

‘unnatural’

• No-grazing systems mean cows

‘disappear’ from the

countryside

Cow shed as Code/Space?Cow shed as Code/Space?Cow shed as Code/Space?Cow shed as Code/Space?

Farming surveillanceFarming surveillanceFarming surveillanceFarming surveillance

Veterinary surveillance Veterinary surveillance Veterinary surveillance Veterinary surveillance

• Stuart Lane et al, (2006)

‘Surveillant science’• “The science is based on coupled

mathematical modelling and

remote sensing, applied at very

high resolution (20 m) but very

large spatial scales (>1000 km2),

to identify where land

management measures are

required to protect the aquatic

environment. Taking modelling

and remote sensing together, this

science makes statements about

which locations in the landscape

are likely to be the causes of

diffuse pollution, without the

need to visit those locations.”

(240)

Simulating risks, predicting outputsSimulating risks, predicting outputsSimulating risks, predicting outputsSimulating risks, predicting outputs

• “These models are truly surveillant, as the data needed to

drive them can be obtained without any knowledge of those to

whom the data pertain.” (253)

ConclusionsConclusionsConclusionsConclusions

• Contemporary farming practice and governance – including

such issues as food safety, animal welfare, environmental

protection and efficient subsidy payments – are using software

• The emergence of this ‘countryside code’ is predicated on

algorithmic data processing which transduces farming

practices, land, crops and livestock in machine-readable

objects

• But how far are some farm spaces now code/space? are coming

to depend on software and distributed information systems to

function?

• What is the effectiveness of real-time surveillance and potency

of future predicting software simulations for managing rural

landscapes?

ReferencesReferencesReferencesReferences• Budd L, Adey P, (2009) “The software-simulated airworld: anticipatory

code and affective aero mobilities”, Environment and Planning A,

forthcoming

• Fuller M, (2008) Software Studies: A Lexicon (MIT Press, Cambridge, MA)

• Graham S D N, (2005) “Software-sorted geographies”, Progress in Human

Geography 29(5) 562-580

• Lane S N, Brookes C J, Heathwaite A L, Reaney S, (2006) “Surveillant

science: challenges for the management of rural environments emerging

from the new generation diffuse pollution models”, Journal of

Agricultural Economics 57(2) 239-257

• Murdoch J, (1997) “Governmentality and territoriality: The statistical

manufacture of Britain’s ‘national farm’”, Political Geography 16(4) 307-

324

• Thrift N, French S, (2002) “The automatic production of space”,

Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers NS 27 309-335

• Woods M, (2007) “Engaging the global countryside: globalization,

hybridity and the reconstitution of rural place”, Progress in Human

Geography 31(4) 485-507

Image SourcesImage SourcesImage SourcesImage Sources• Slide 1: Illustration by Robin Hursthouse, scanned from The Guardian, Field Experts, Saturday July 21

2007, <http://www.guardian.co.uk/money/2007/jul/21/careers.work>

• Slide 2: Constable painting. Source: <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:John_Constable_008.jpg>

• Slide 3: Pyre of culled animals from foot and mouth disease outbreak in 2001. Photography by Michel

Spinger, AP/Wide World Photos. Source: <http://www.scienceclarified.com/dispute/Vol-1/Should-

the-threat-of-foot-and-mouth-disease-be-met-by-the-destruction-of-all-animals-that-might-have-

been-exposed-to-the-virus.html>

• Slide 4: BBC News website. Source: <http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/7093806.stm>

• Slide 7: The Farm, Ladybird book cover scan. Source:

<http://flickr.com/photos/37997987@N00/515875302>

• Slide 8: Cattle ear tag. Source: <http://www.defra.gov.uk/animalh/id-

move/cattle/memberstates.htm#2>; Cattle passport sample. Source:

<http://www.defra.gov.uk/animalh/id-move/cattle/memberstates.htm>

• Slide 9: Egg traceability System web page. Source:

<http://www.lioneggfarms.co.uk/information/egg-codes/>

• Slide 10: DeLaval marketing brochure. Source: <http://www.delaval.com/NR/rdonlyres/E8455914-

F039-49F0-A56D-98720E04897E/0/vms_basic_brochure_web.pdf>

• Slide 11: De Laval marketing brochure. Source: <http://www.delaval.com/NR/rdonlyres/E8455914-

F039-49F0-A56D-98720E04897E/0/vms_basic_brochure_web.pdf>

Image SourcesImage SourcesImage SourcesImage Sources• Slide 12: Enumeration form from 1941 Nation Farm Survey. Source: <http://countryside-quality-

counts.org.uk/publications/1941-Farm-Survey.pdf>

• Slide 13: FMD movement map. Source: <http://royalsociety.org/inquiry/index/idl_3to4.pdf>;

Density of poultry map. Source:

<http://www.defra.gov.uk/animalh/diseases/vetsurveillance/reports/pdf/poultry-

registered080211.pdf>

• Slide 14: Uncertainty on risk map. Source:

<http://www.dur.ac.uk/sim.reaney/scimap/reaney_bhs_2006.ppt>

• Slide 15: Flow diagram and risk map. Source:

<http://www.dur.ac.uk/sim.reaney/scimap/reaney_bhs_2006.ppt>

• Slide 16: Grain maize map and flow diagram. Source:

<http://www.geoinformatics.com/asp/default.asp?t=article&newsid=3175>; MARS Bulletin

screenshot. Source: <http://mars.jrc.ec.europa.eu/mars/Bulletins-Publications>